Saturnial prelude [3]

Hi people, it's plumbing time. There is a real labyrinth of tubes, pipes and connectors all over the top part of a rocket engine, and that is especially the case with this one. The F-1 was immensely complex and because it was enormous, the amount of plumbing also was quite considerably. There was a huge
quantity of fuel that needed to be used and distributed all through the engine at an incredibly high speed. Don't worry, I am not going to explain the details of how this engine worked but all I am saying is that it took a lot of tubes and pipes and whatnots.
Using a busload of pictures which I got by email by my friend Zoltan (thanks!) I now am slowly adding most of it to my paper engine. This will take some time, which I only have in small quantities at the moment, so the progress will be small. Today I did most of the first quadrant of the F-1. It isn't all completely accurate but it gives a good idea of the overall look of the engine.
And it all starts with measuring, fitting, measuring again and fitting again and only then the gluing bit.

As you can see, I already added the pipe leading to the turbo pump fuel exhaust manifold here. (It's the little pipe on the left with the wider opening on top.) For the characteristical foursome of pipes next to it, I use green floral wire. It is easily bendable and sturdy at the same time. The engine bell itself is also cooled with fuel. The liquid nitrogen was so cold, it easily could make this little detour through small tubes that together are shaped like the engine bell. (this is shown in the print.) Some vents were placed on both sides of the engine bell to prevent overpressure. These pipes were made from rolled-up paper.

The rest of the story is after the jump.

 

Four little pipes, painted silver and glued with CA. There are a couple of beads glued on the neck of the engine bell for the struts that will hold the engine in place.

The vent line over the engine bell was given small silver strips over its seams.

Four of the eight struts that will bolt the engine to the thrust structure of the Saturn V. The original kit parts were flat while the real struts were looking more like this, somewhat like double shock absorbers. I rolled each of them out of one part, starting with a length of 25mm that measured 20mm width which then changed into a 10mm wide strip. I used my powertool to sand of the edges to a more sloped shape.
   

This is more or less where I am now. There are some more pipes across the engine's neck ad the first set of struts is attached. The manifold structure also is reinforced with an extra strut. More pictures hopefully very soon. This fiddling with small pieces of metal and scratch building in general always is very enjoyable.
Thanks for watching!

--PK